Missiles On Our Land by Nina Berman

Public Project

Missiles On Our Land

Copyright Nina Berman 2025

Updated Jun 2025

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The Missiles on Our Land investigates the human and environmental risks associated with the most significant nuclear weapon build-up in the United States since the end of the Cold War. The project combines large-scale computational simulations of the consequences of nuclear war with ethnography and journalism to explore and shed light on the remaking of the US nuclear arsenal from multiple scientific and social angles. It is the result of collaboration between Princeton University's Program on Science & Global Security, Nuclear Princeton, and Columbia University’s School of Journalism, published in partnership with a special issue by Scientific American. Nina Berman worked as a project leader, photographer, director, video editor and reporter.

The Missiles on Our Land website includes:

1)A webstory by Sébastien Philippe (Princeton Program on Science and Global Security) and Nina Berman (Columbia School of Journalism) on the human and environmental risks associated with the new Sentinel land-based nuclear missile program.

2)Fallout, a 24-minute video documentary directed by Nina Berman and Duy Linh Tu (Columbia School of Journalism) and produced by Jeffery DelViscio (Scientific American). Fallout looks at the environmental legacy and current risks posed by the US government’s plan to overhaul its nuclear weapons arsenal at a cost of nearly two trillion dollars.

3)Under the Nuclear Cloud, an interactive map to explore the fallout consequences of nuclear strikes on US missile silos across North America, produced by Katie Watson (Brown Institute for Media Innovation) and Sebastien Philippe.

4)The Missiles on Our Rez, a five-part investigative podcast by Ella Weber (Princeton University), produced by Sebastien Philippe and Tulika Bose (Scientific American) with photos by Nina Berman. The Missiles on Our Rez explores the past, present, and future of nuclear missiles in the only Native American tribe hosting nuclear weapons in the United States.

5) Scientific American, the New Nuclear Age, December 2023, magazine linked here.

Awards:
2024 Picture of Year Awards, Finalist, Documentary Journalism for Fallout
2024 Silver Telly Award, General-Documentary (Short Form) for Fallout
2024 Sigma Awards, short list
2024 Webby Award, Nominee, Science, Health & Education Podcast

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